MRG Evening Meeting – More Data Wanted From ABC And NRS

Lynne Robinson, media director at the IPA, has called for more frequent ABC consumer magazine audits as well as changes to the National Readership Survey. Robinson believes that there is a lack of data on section readership and that additional titles should be included on the NRS. She also questioned whether quality of reading should be measured on a quantitative survey. Her comments were delivered at last week’s Media Research Group Evening Meeting, which was concerned with measuring the effectiveness of magazine advertising.

Guy Consterdine, from the BPA, started the meeting by setting out the reasons why he believed advertising in magazines is effective. These included the active way readers choose and use magazines, the personality and brand values of a magazine, the relationship between reader and magazine and the fact that most magazines are well-read. According to Consterdine ads are an integral part of a magazine and readers are influenced in their purchase decisions by the ads they see.

This last point was picked up by Sue Coffin, from the National Magazine Company, who presented research results from various studies which attempted to prove the effectiveness of magazine ads. These results suggested that among heavy reader Housewives, a heavy magazine ad spend resulted in a 13% increase in brand share. If TV campaigns were supplemented by magazine ads then the potential was even greater for FMCG brands to increase their share.

Despite calling for more data from ABC and NRS, Lynne Robinson pointed out that magazines were still probably the best researched media. She applauded in particular the PPA research which had become “reference books” for many agency people. Robinson believes however that more publicity is needed to be given to all the magazine surveys because at the moment they are not getting the airing they deserve.

As part of questions from the floor Geoff Wicken, from BMRB, pointed out that creative work should be measured, as this could be as important as any other factors in the effectiveness of an ad campaign. Guy Consterdine responded by saying that more pre-testing of ads could increase their effectiveness. Rosemary Taylor raised the issue of whether agencies actually appreciate all the research which is being carried out for magazines. Peter Bowman, media research director at WCRS, answered this by saying that there is a greater interest in press these days due to the extra research which is being carried out into the medium.